BSNL employees to go on indefinite strike from April 20

To protest against the recommendations of the Sam Pitroda-led committee, over three lakh employees of the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. on Tuesday decided to go on an indefinite strike from April 20, a move that will hurt telecom services across the country.

“All BSNL executives and non-executives have decided to go on strike to protest against the impractical measures suggested by the committee for BSNL revival,” said V.A.N. Namboodiri, convener of the Joint Action Committee of BSNL Unions and Associations.

Stating that the BSNL management has already been served notice on the strike, Mr. Namboodiri said employees would oppose disinvestment or privatisation of the state-owned telecom major and forced retirement of its employees, as suggested by the Pitroda committee. He also demanded the settlement of the Indian Telecom Service (ITS) officers issue, and their continued deputation for more than nine years, which was causing irreparable damage to the development and expansion of BSNL.

Mr. Namboodiri said the scrapping of the tender to add more mobile lines, and the outsourcing and unbundling of copper cables, would only help private companies at the cost of BSNL. “The immediate requirement of BSNL is to procure the required mobile lines since the 9.3-crore lines tender has been scrapped by the BSNL board,” he added.